Stuckeys’ Back – The Pistons Aren’t

When you have a DVR it give you the luxury of starting the game when you can rather than when it starts. I couldn’t catch the start of the game so my plan was to watch the game in its entirety right when I got home. I usually can’t keep myself in the dark score wise (I just need to know), so when I opened up my Pistons Blackberry app and saw that the game was 6-21 in favor of the Pacers and it was mid first quarter I wasn’t exactly rushing home to see it. To my surprise after digging themselves a substantial hole and trailing the game by double digits for most of the game, Detroit climbed back in the game taking a 95-94 lead thanks to a huge three from DaJuan Summers with 2:51 remaining.

It didn’t matter however, the Pacers scored the next 8 points and won 102-106.

Key Points:

I don’t care what you say there is some kind of issue going on with Rip Hamilton. When I guy like Rip does his best “Kobe” impression by not looking for his shot and scoring ZERO points, something is up. Rip was 0-for-3 in 18 minutes on the floor with 1 assist, 1 steal and 3 turnovers. When he was resigned to the bench….he either looked pissed off, or he was sulking. Let’s keep our eyes on this situation.

Detroit had 7 turnover in the first quarter, but clamped down and finished the game with 13.

Limited minutes for Ben Wallace who looked good in his 24 minutes. Ben scored just one point, grabbed 7 boards, with 3 steals and an assist. How we did miss the man.

Ben Gordon scores 17 on 4-13 shooting with 7 boards, 6 assists and 2 blocked shots. Great game for Ben, but when it counted late in the fourth quarter he couldn’t knock down the shot.

Sometimes I think Gordon is still getting his check from the Bulls, not the Pistons.

If this wasn’t a statement from Rodney Stuckey than I don’t know what is. Rodney was on fire as soon as he checked into the game. Not only was it good to see him play, he didn’t look apprehensive about anything considering the circumstances. Stuckey scored 25 in 26 minutes for the Pistons with 3 assists, 3 steals and a turnover playing most all of his minutes at the 2 guard position. Stucktacular!

Photo/Getty Images

I feel all right,” Stuckey said of his 26 minutes. “The plan wasn’t to play all those minutes, but it was just in the heat of the game. I feel fine, and my wind felt fine. Via The Detroit Free Press

Detroit shot a shocking 50% from behind the long line. Only bad thing about that was Indiana shot 53%.

Jerebko with 10 points, 6 boards and 3 steals. You can count on him each game with numbers like that or better.

Best thing I can say about Charlie Villanueva is that he’s been a disappointment this season.

Nine points for Will, with 4 assist in 21 minutes.

What a miserable 3 quarters for Detroit, I was almost happy FSN didn’t broadcast this game in HD. Who wants to see all that blood?

We just bettered ourselves in the Lottery standings! The Pistons are tied with the Pacers for the fifth-worst record in the league.

Give DaJuan Summers some minutes! Summers scores 12 points in 17 minutes on 4-7 shooting with 4 boards and a blocked shot. Just check out his highlights.

hmm. gordon takes 13 shots and rip takes 3, that’s probably the whole situation right there. i’m sorry, it just blows my mind. i watched the pistons play every game against gordon’s bulls for years and never for a second thought gordon was a player i’d want on my team. now we’re trying to force him in and rip out, it’s ludicrous. of course i thought the same thing about iverson, so maybe i’m just not paying attention (as that obviously worked out so well).

rip deserves better. sometimes i think we deserve albatrosses like cv and bg, hell maybe even ai. the more we try to force start gordon’s game, we’re going to lose rip’s.

Rodney looked really good out there. Nice to see he wasn’t apprehensive or anything in his first game back. Just in attack mode from the start and that jumper looked really good, even out to three point range. I guess Rodney had been practicing in his down time.